


A Taste of Silver, a Touch of Gold

by yhlee (etothey)



Category: Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 18:26:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20728760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etothey/pseuds/yhlee
Summary: Two queens and their talents.Thanks to UrsulaKohl and sigalit for the beta.





	A Taste of Silver, a Touch of Gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reconditarmonia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reconditarmonia/gifts).

Whenever she visited me in the Staryk realm, Irina brought a breath of cold. The Staryk did not like her presence, winter's child though she was. But she was the one who had freed me from being trapped here, allowing me to travel back and forth with her, and no one would gainsay me the right to come and go as I pleased, nor to entertain whatever guests I desired.

Flek and Tsop were setting out a fine repast of the foods the Staryk valued so, the translucent flesh of raw fish and yellow-pale slices of fruit, wine richer than honey, and more. Irina had developed a taste for such things, the Staryk blood in her proving true. But her enthusiasm showed appreciation for the hospitality.

She arrived in an ice-fall of light. Her control over mirror-travel had grown more sure, or perhaps it was that she was invited, and welcome; she could enter my chambers freely. The crown of silver glittered in her hair as though it had been forged of snow and starlight. So too the necklace, and the ring. Even now it was with an effort that I looked away from the silver shine of her jewelry and into her eyes, which were as human as my own.

"I could not get away any earlier," Irina said, and came into my arms. I embraced her, careful not to set hands on the ring, the necklace, the crown, not when they were the key to her magic. She smelled of fine perfumes, the essence of flowers from a bygone spring, and beneath that the faintest tang of salt, and beneath that still the clean sweet chill of ice.

But her mouth was warm beneath my own, and her breath fragrant and spiced with the mulled wine she must have drunk earlier, and she was laughing as she pulled off the crown, the necklace, the ring. She left them on the shimmering table I kept clear for her use. No one who dwelled in Staryk lands would dare touch them.

"I came," Irina said briskly, "because I have budgeting questions to go over with you--in private, or I would have invited you to court."

I nodded. Certainly a good many of her so-called advisors couldn't be trusted, and while Irina had a good head for figures, mine was even better. Lithvas's treasury had been run into the ground, these past wintry years. It would require good management and stern measures, and Irina's persuasiveness, to turn things around. She had never asked me to make her more gold; she had known, without my having to explain it to her, why that would only worsen the kingdom's economy.

Irina had not brought the ledgers with her. But she had committed the necessary figures to memory. Her memory rivaled my own; it was one of the things I liked about her.

"Come, we can discuss it over supper," I said, and we both sat. It wouldn't be Shabbat for another three days. That was another thing I had explained to Irina, and whatever she thought of my people's practices, she respected me well enough not to visit, and ask work of me, at that time.

We spoke of figures as we ate, numbers like dry bones wanting flesh, and others like succulent fruit. It was all a matter of keeping them in balance. For coin wasn't the only thing that had a weight, here. There was also the regard that Lithvas's people had for their queen, and the tax collectors; their willingness to spend, and their willingness to save; the movements of the merchants, the flow of imports and exports.

"That's all I can do for you in one night," I said at last. "I'm sorry I can't offer more."

Irina leaned in and stroked my hair, then kissed my ear. "On the contrary. You still have a gift for turning everything into gold, and these days you don't even have to touch it."


End file.
